The leakage is not really an issue. It happens after some time: I kept the water in the kettle all night long because in the morning I didn't have time to wait it to soak before putting it on the hotplate.

Previously, I had soaked the kettle in water for 24 hours. Maybe letting it dry a little and resoaking it for a shorter time will reduce the leakage.

By the way, in my opinion, the more porous the clay, the larger the contact surface with the water, the better the taste. Moreover, if the clay is very porous, it may let some of the charcoal aroma to get in and affect the water too.

I agree with JackubT. I am not a puerh fan, but when I tasted it with the water cooked in this kettle the flavour completely changed: no more harsh notes, the tea was sweeter, with much more flavour and a prolonged aftertaste. My tetsubin does not improve the water as much.

If it's a small crack, try boiling rice porridge water (not the solids - cook rice porridge and then strain it) in the kettle for a while. That helped with a small crack in one of mine, and if it works, should help prevent the crack from expanding.

I agree with JackubT. I am not a puerh fan, but when I tasted it with the water cooked in this kettle the flavour completely changed: no more harsh notes, the tea was sweeter, with much more flavour and a prolonged aftertaste. My tetsubin does not improve the water as much.

I'm curious about trying it with green tea. Let's see what happens.

A

Hmm, while it made it thicker and sweeter here, I thought the effect on puerh was larger than the effect on green tea. But it will be interesting to read your experience.

sebpassion wrote:what a stunning beauty, debunix!looks very natural for what type of tea you use it?

So far, it's done well with oolong & puerh. It's fully glazed inside, so can go with anything but it holds quite a small volume (I think under 100mL), and while it might get a chance with some of the gyokuro from the current tasting, it's a bit small for my usual green brewing sessions.

New to me Lin's Ceramics teapot (got from Tea Swap here - thanks Jeremy). It is hard to really quantify any changes the clay makes, however, my first pot of tea did taste differently than the same tea from either gaiwan or other teapots I had been drinking it out of for over a year. Slightly sweeter and more of a black tea flavor, from the 1990's pu'erh I christened it with. Since the tea water spends only a few seconds in the pot, I am not sure how the affect works, but the pot does seem to change the flavor profile. Over time, with more teas tried, I will get a better idea on changes the pot brings. Perhaps next I will try an oolong.

Here it is with a moderately chipped ming tea bowl - I wanted to start with a bit of a special cup for it's inaugural brew.